Street Engagement
Teams
WHY S.E.T.’S ARE NEEDED:
Youth violent crime can seriously affect the quality of life for victims and their families. In addition, people living in communities with high crime rates often suffer from fear, anxiety, and a loss of freedom as people restrict their activities to avoid becoming victims of violence. Society also pays for violence through expenditures for police and criminal justice interventions, social services, and preventive educational activities. Exposure to community violence can be traumatic for children, and children exposed to community violence might be at risk for depression, interpersonal problems, or academic difficulty. However, exposure to community violence is associated with other risk factors such as poverty, so the causal relationships are not known.
Youth who show high levels of aggression throughout childhood and adolescence are themselves at higher risk for a variety of outcomes that affect the quality of life including low educational attainment, persistent unemployment, poor physical health, alcohol and drug abuse, unintentional injury, depression, suicide attempts, relationship conflict, spouse abuse, and neglectful and abusive parenting as adults. They also are at increased risk of being killed or permanently maimed.
Identifying and understanding risk and protective factors related to youth violence is a cornerstone of effective prevention. A risk factor increases the probability that a person will engage in violent behavior, and a protective factor decreases the negative impact of risk factors. Risk and protective factors that predict youth violence are developmentally specific. Interventions must take into account that different risk and protective factors are especially relevant at different ages. Risk and protective factors are typically grouped across five domains:
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• Individual
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• Family
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• Peers
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• School
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• Community
Street Tours
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Engage at risk young people on the streets, parks, spiritual meeting places, and common areas in the community. Our goal is to go to the places where young people hang out. We want to “touch” as many lives as possible
Safe Passage
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Stay on top of our own personal matters so we can be the best example of peace. We must be a good example of a S.E.T. There should be a clear line between those we are trying to help and ourselves. We must also not try to be too righteous as this may turn off some of the young people we are trying to assist
Community Events
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Go into the community with the intention of keeping young people out of prison and free from violent actions on their part. We are not a vigilante group, we are not law enforcement. We do not go into the community with the intention of having our young people locked up or hurt. We should wish them only the best. If an incident shall arise contact your lead.
Public Areas
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Refer community resources to young people from our pool of resources that may lead them to greater opportunities. We do not want to just tell our young people to not join gangs and get involved with the street life we are asking them “how can we make your life better”. This will allow us the opportunity to see the world through their eyes. From that point on we should be making a point to getting in touch with a guardian who will allow us to point them in the right direction for the services they are in need of
Community Engagement
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Connect to the greater community in an effort to bring more people around to the S.E.T. point of view. It takes a village to raise a child therefore we are combining our passion in helping young people with the resources of the community. Sometimes young people do not know the resources around them, sometimes young people are not allowed to travel to other locations because of boundary issues we need to know this and alternatives so they can receive the help they need.
Provide Resources
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Work to reduce violence by changing the mind set of young people who may be on the fence when it comes to violence and how it effects the area. We have the philosophy that any situation can be turned around when we work towards helping young people see the light of a life free of prison and gang violence
Our
Story
Get to Know Us
We are residents in the area in which we are volunteering. People who live or work in the area they are volunteering have a vested interest in making sure that violence drops in their area. Being a violence prevention volunteer is one great way to make that happen
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
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S.E.T.'s work towards changing the mindset of young people who may feel pressured into the world of gangs and violent crimes.
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We do this by offering them alternatives to risky behavior such as community activities and extended care from one or more of our partners in the community
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We work closely at establishing relationships with organizations and agencies that help us towards this goal.
Get Involved - Want To Join A Team?
Our Violence Prevention Team will:
Identify and recruit community residents and other caregivers who have an interest in violence prevention and engaging families;
Train these volunteers for street engagement doing violence prevention related community education and outreach to their peers (other residents and caregivers);
Arm these team members with content (mental wellness) communications, training on prevention (violence) strategies and leadership training;
Provide ongoing personal development opportunities, including group activities; and
Prepare these new community leaders to become “go-to” resources in the neighborhood.
Refer families to positive activities and training in their community
Provide Safe Passages to students attending community schools
Attend violence responses and shooting responses w/violence prevention partners, clergy & residents